When You're Gone
by Herm-Own-Ninny879
Summary: songfic AU. I'm sorry we never got to say goodbye, the voice said. She turned around...and frustratingly, she saw no one behind her. Stop, please stop, she cried, tears falling slowly down her face. Sakura remembers a certain someone...OneShot,SxS


**When You're Gone  
**By Herm-Own-Ninny879

**Disclaimer: **I do not own 'Naruto', for it is owned by Masashi Kishimoto, and the song 'When You're Gone' belongs to Avril Lavigne and Sony BMG.

* * *

"_Watch this," Fourteen year-old Sakura Haruno laughed, getting on top of the bridge rail. She began to act like her ex-friend, Ino Yamanaka, who was a real big snob. Naruto Uzumaki laughed at her loudly, but the other boy, tall with black, long hair, just smiled, watching her secretly. _

She's amazing,_ he thought, closing his eyes. _

_"Hey Sasuke!" Sakura exclaimed, waving from the top of the rail. _

_Sasuke broke out of dream state, and looked at her when she stroke a model pose. "Oooh, I'm Ino! I'm a little pig girl!" _

_Sasuke laughed quietly. He wasn't the type to be gaudy, like their friend Naruto, who was hyperactive and silly. _

_"I love pigs too! I love to act like a little princess, even thought I'm—AARGH!" Sakura screamed as she tripped off the rail and into the river. Sasuke and Naruto ran over to the railing, and watched as she helplessly thrashed. They all forgot the rail was slippery and the river was deep. _

_Scared, Sasuke jumped over the rail, ignoring Naruto's shouts of crazy-ness. He swam swiftly and prudently towards the drowning Sakura, grabbed her by her waist and, carrying his and her weight, he paddled slowly, but fast enough to shore. _

_"Sa-su-ke!" Sakura gasped, once they reached shore. Naruto ran over to see if they were ok, but when he got there, he saw them staring at each other weirdly. _

_"Thanks," she said, still staring at him._

_"You're welcome...Saku," Sasuke laughed, water dripping down his wet hair. Sakura looked surprised at him._

_He never ever called her Saku before..._

_**I always needed time on my own**_

_**I never thought I'd need you there when I cry**_

"Sasuke..." sixteen year-old Sakura said, tears falling down her face. It had been about a few years after that incident, and the group had just gotten back from the Land of the Waves. She looked back into the water as she stood on the bridge, arms on the rail. She thought she saw his face in it, but shook her head, knowing he wasn't there.

"Sakura-chan?" a voice asked, tapping her shoulder. A blond boy, wearing all black, with bandages on parts of his face. Smiled warmly as she turned around. Her pale green eyes, strewn with tears, smiled back at him.

"Are you alright?" she asked him. Naruto shook his head, laughing quietly.

"No, the question is, are _you_ alright?" Naruto asked, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. She shook her head, starting to sob as she hugged him tightly.

_**And the days feel like years when I'm alone...**_

_**And the bed where you lie is made up on your side**_

_"Turn around," he whispered, covering her eyes. She giggled as he led her over to the balcony of his apartment. _

_"What is it, Sasuke?" she asked excitedly, folding her arms. _

_"You'll see," he smiled. It was his small, darkish smile that she could feel through his hands. _

_Sasuke opened the door to his balcony, and followed a path down to a tree branch. Carefully, he picked her up, after tying a cloth around her eyes, and putting all his Chakra to his feet, he walked her across the branch and to a little place where two people could sit, watching all the stars. _

_"Open your eyes." _

"I miss him Naruto, I miss him so much," Sakura cried into his shoulder.

"Don't worry...E-everything will be alright," Naruto said, trying to suppress his tears.

_**When you walk away**_

_**I count the steps that you take**_

_"SASUKE! Don't leave," she cried. "If you leave...I will scream so loud that everyone will hear!" she exclaimed. _

_"What do you care?" he said, not turning around. _

_"I always cared," she said, starting to cry. _

_"I could tell," he said as he shrugged, finally turning around. He saw her falling to her knees. _

_"Please, don't leave Konoha...don't leave Team 7...Don't leave _me,_" she said, full-out sobbing. _

_His dark expression faltered. He looked sad. As he tried to scowl, he couldn't as tears began to cloud up his eyes. He rubbed them furiously before he looked properly at her. _

_"Sasuke...don't leave me, please don't," she said, her voice getting hoarse and quiet._

_"Sakura-chan..." he faltered. _

_"Please..."_

_He ran over to her, and helped her up. He looked at her, and they both started to cry and he gave her a big hug. _

_**Do you see how much I need you right now?  
**_

"Don't cry, Sakura, don't cry," Naruto said, rubbing her back as he gave her another hug.

"I can't stop, I just can't..."

_**When you're gone, the pieces of my heart are missing you**_

_**When you're gone, the face I came to know is missing too...**_

"Why did he have to leave us, why?" she said, pulling away from her friend's embrace.

"I think it was his time..."

"..."

"..."

"It was my fault," Naruto said, his fist clenching tightly. She looked at him.

"Why? You wouldn't kill your best friend," Sakura said, her tears dripping down, but slowly and quietly.

"I didn't...but technically I did..."

_"So I save you again..._dunce,_" Sasuke said heavily, panting as the deadly chiropractic needles stuck out of him. _

_"Sasuke!" Naruto exclaimed. Sasuke collapsed and Naruto scooped him up. _

_"Hah...I...always have to save...your butt," Sasuke said, his breaths deep and ragged. Haku, the young man who shot the ice needles at them, just stood there in his mask, watching. _

_"Sasuke..." Naruto began to cry. _

_"I don't want to see my comrades die...so..." Sasuke coughed. His voice got quieter and quieter by the second. _

_"I DON'T WANT TO EITHER!" Naruto shouted. Sasuke laughed hoarsely. _

_"But...hey...this is life," he said huskily._

_"SASUKE! WHAT ABOUT SAKURA?"  
"Tell her...I love her..."_

_"..."_

_"At least...I saved...your butt...du-n-ce..." Sasuke said, his eyes slowly closing. His grip on the icy floor loosened and it became colder in the room. Sasuke laid there, a soft smile on his face. Naruto stood up slowly, and backed away, shocked... _

_**When you're gone, the words I need to hear **_

_**To always get me through the day...**_

"He...saved...you?" Sakura said, looking at her friend, who looked away. Sakura fell to her knees.

"As I said before...I'm really the dunce...I just watched him die, I just didn't do anything...I just...just..." he let out a strangled cry and fell to his knees as well.

"Did...he say anything about...me?"

"He did."

_**...and make it ok...**_

"What was it?"

"He told me...he told me, 'tell her I love her'..." Naruto smiled through his sadness. Sakura cupped her hands to her mouth and her green eyes sparkled more than ever.

"He did?"

"He really did, Sakura, he really did..."

_**...I miss you...**_

"It wasn't your fault, Naruto," Sakura sobbed, helping him up this time. They looked at each other, laughing softly. They both leaned on the rail of the bridge, looking down at the water.

"Remember the time I fell off?"

"...yeah, and you were acting like Yamanaka that day," Naruto giggled.

"And then I fell off," she smiled.

"..."

"...and Sasuke jumped in to save me..."

"Yeah...That was cool," Naruto smiled.

"Want me to try that again?" she asked all of a sudden.

"..."

"..."

"Sure," Naruto said, shrugging as he wiped his eyes. Sakura nodded, and in her black _zori_ (traditional Japanese sandals), she climbed up the rail and stood there, focusing all of her _chakra_ (energy) to her feet, and she walked across it...But then, the memory of that single, one day wavered in her mind...

_**I've never felt this before**_

_**Everything that I do, reminds me of you...**_

She jumped off the rail and back onto the bridge, landing gracefully.

"Who's going to handle his headband for the...the...funeral?" she asked Naruto, choking out the word 'funeral'.

"They say you should handle it," Naruto said, holding it out to her. Hands trembling, she took it from his hands. When she looked at it, the image of his face immediately popped up.

_**And the clothes you left, they lie on the floor**_

_**And they smell like you, I love the things that you do**_

She tied it onto her waist and the two walked over to the main area of the town where everyone was already gathering. Sakura's eyes met Ino Yamanaka's. The two nodded and one by one, after a short message from the Hokage, everyone took white roses and laid them on the coffin with his picture on it.

_**When you walk away, I count the steps that you take...**_

_**Do you see how much I need you right now?**_

_"SASUKE! NO...please...don't leave me," she sobbed over Sasuke's body. The elderly man behind her, the bridge builder they were supposed to protect, could only watch. _

_**When you're gone, the pieces of my heart are missing you... **_

_**When you're gone, the face I came to know is missing too...**_

_"I remember at school...I listened to everything sensei told me...everything, and I memorized the rules of Shinobi Conduct." Confusedly, the man looked at her._

_"I remember the twenty-fifth one..."_

_"And what was that?" he said softly to her. _

_**When you're gone, the words I need to hear to always get me through the day...**_

_**And make it okay... **_

_"...a..."_

_"..."_

_"A shinobi must never show...their...emotions..." she said, beginning to sob over his body._

_"..."_

_**I miss you...**_

"_Sasuke..." _

_**We were made for each other **_

_**Out here forever**_

_**I know we were**_

_**Yeah, Yeah**_

_"Open your eyes," Sasuke said, smiling. She gasped. They were on a tree branch, high above the ground. Little lanterns hung in the trees. _

_"Sasuke!" she exclaimed. _

_**All I ever wanted was for you to know, everything I do I give my heart and soul**_

_**I can hardly breathe I need you here with me, baby...yeah...**_

"'Open your eyes'...Why don't you do that?" Sakura whispered as she looked at his portrait, on a stand next to the coffin. "Why did you have to go?"

_**When you're gone, the pieces of my heart are missing you,**_

_**When you're gone the face I came to know is missing you**_

_**When you're gone the words I need to hear**_

"Sakura..." a voice said. She turned around, but no one was talking to her.

She turned back, a tear falling down her face. She looked back into the coffin, which was wide open, with Sasuke's pale, handsome face, eyes closed peacefully.

_**Will always get me through...**_

"I'm sorry we never got to say goodbye," a voice said again. She turned around and frustratingly, she never saw anyone else.

"Stop please, stop," she whispered to herself.

"Then stop crying please...I don't like it when you cry..." the voice said again.

"Stop haunting me, please, stop..." she began to cry. It was as if time froze, and everyone else was just still standing where they were, all in perfect order.

"How can I when I see you like this?" the voice said. She turned around, and there stood Sasuke, who smiled sadly at her.

_**The day...**_

"How can you be here when you..." she looked down at the Sasuke in the coffin and the Sasuke behind her.

He shrugged. "That's..."

"...life," she finished slowly. She started to breathe heavily, hoping this was real.

"What are you?"

"What?" he asked, looking at his robes. "Oh, you mean these robes?"

"Yeah..." she said quietly.

"I don't know. One minute I was dying, and the next thing you know...poof, I'm in these robes. And look, there's my clan symbol in on the back," he said turning around. They both laughed softly.

She thought she was hallucinating. She shook her head.

"You're not really here, are you?"

"..."

"..."

"Not physically," he said, getting closer to her.

He looked so different from when there were at the Land of Mist. He looked much more mature, though he was the same age as her.

"Phy...physically?"

"I'm not sure, it's hard to explain..." he said, his voice faltering. He put his finger under her chin.

"Don't cry, smile," he said quietly.

"How can I? You're...go-ne..." she said, her voice cracking as tears dripped down her face.

"I'm not gone, I'll always be with you, always," he said, smiling.

"I can't handle you gone, I just can't," she said, looking away. He moved her face slowly back towards his.

"I can't move on if you can't," he said, looking at her sadly.

"But..."

"...move on, or I can't. I don't like seeing you like this," he said, looking down at the ground.

"Sasuke-kun...I love you, and I always will," she said, putting his head up this time.

"I love you so much, Sakura-chan...So move on, please, for me..."

"I will," she said finally." He smiled and nodded.

And with one gush of the wind...he disappeared and everything and everyone began moving again.

_**...and make it okay... **_

"Sakura-chan..." a voice said, knocking her out of her daze. It was Naruto.

"Naruto-kun..." she said, surprised. Her tears had stopped falling. It was as if he wiped them away from her completely.

"Feeling alright?" he said, putting his hand on her shoulder once more.

"Yeah, I am," she said, smiling. She looked back at Sasuke's photo and his body in the coffin, smiled, and walked away with Naruto, meeting up with the others as the sun rose into the sky...

_**...I miss you...**_

* * *

fin.**

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Author's End Note:** When I typed this, and showed it to my sister, Chibi, we both felt a little teary when we read the ending. Gosh, this was really hard. You may have seen some minor changes. Like, they're sixteen when they go to the Land of the Waves. Yeah, I wanted it to mix the Haku battle stuff with this story. Sasuke might've seen more romance-y in this story. It's sooo hard to keep him in character in a story like this, so don't flame me for that. I believe this'll end up Naru/Saku. :P. But oh well. 

I was super-tempted to write a 'When You're Gone' FanFic for HP, but I'll do that sometime with a different Avril Lavigne song that I really like...possibly a Hr/R/La with 'Everything Back But You', but that's a different category. LOL. Just please leave a review .

then I'll give you a cookie. :)


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